LAHORE: The 425MW Nandipur Power Plant is likely to go on scheduled outage for 20 days as the contractor has sought for shutdown to complete various maintenance-related jobs ahead of the summer.

“Though the contractor had applied for a 20-day shutdown of the plant for condenser cleaning and other maintenance works, the National Power Control Centre (NPCC) is yet to grant permission. As soon as it approves the plan, the contractor will start observing the shutdown,” Gencos Holding Company Limited (GHCL) Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Imran told Dawn on Monday.

He claimed since conversion of the plant into gas, it had touched the maximum generation of 526MW last month.

“The total installed generation capacity of the plant was 425MW and 510MW before and after conversion, respectively. However, it once attained 526MW generation last month due to cold weather. But normally its generation ranges between 460MW to 480MW,” Imran explained. The plant at present, he said, was running all of its four turbines – three on gas and one on steam.

On the other hand, the company has also made the 230MW unit-4 of the Muzaffargarh plant operational recently following the NPCC instructions, upcoming Nandipur plant’s scheduled outages and the increasing demand.

In February last year, the government had entered into a 10-year contract with China’s Hydro Electric Power System Engineering Company (HEPSEC) for operation and maintenance (O&M) of the Nandipur project. Later in April, the plant was put on trial run after being converted to the regasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG). But various pending jobs (including the initial performance test) involved both the Northern Power Generation Company Limited (NPGCL) and the Chinese company into a series of letters against each other, delaying commencement of operation and maintenance of this combined cycle plant.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2018